


Travelling Songs

by momentinsubtext



Series: Beyond The Help Of Falling Stars [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Land of the Lost (TV 1974), Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 09:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2224158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momentinsubtext/pseuds/momentinsubtext
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gwen ends up travelling with the Doctor for considerably longer than a week.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Week Tops

Gwen spends most of the first day looking for the kitchen. In the end she has to ask the Doctor for help, and it still takes an hour longer than it should.

  
  
The second day, Gwen ties a string to her doorknob, puts Sam into a trolley, and sets out to map the nearby corridors. She has the sneaking suspicion that it doesn't do her any good because the room rearrange themselves when she's not looking, but she doesn't have anyway to prove it; everything is exactly where she expects it to be when she checks.  
  
  
  
"Johnson, I told you I didn't want to get a phone call about you."  
  
  
  
The first time Gwen sees the Doctor since they set out is on the fourth day, when he leads a pretty young blonde woman into the nursery while she's getting peed on changing Sam.  
  
"Gwen Cooper, Ruth Tyler."  
  
"You could have called first. This is not the first impression I wanted to make."  
  
He shrugs unrepentantly.  
  
  
  
On the fifth day, the Doctor points the sonic screwdriver at Ruth. "Setting 1217.4, induces lactation in humans."  
  
"Why would that _possibly_ be a setting?"  
  
"Trust me, you don't want to know."  
  
  
  
Gwen puts Sam into his mother's arms on the sixth day.  
  
"Let's go home."  
  
  
  
Gwen looks around at the surrounding forest and greenery. "Does this look anything like my living room to you?"  
  
"I... ah, I suppose not." He rubs the back of his neck. "Oops?"


	2. Transitory

"Well?" Gwen asks expectantly.  
  
"It's not Earth," he says, tapping the sonic screwdriver against the side of the screen. "Mostly. Looks like part of it used to be."  
  
"What does that even mean?"  
  
The Doctor frowns. "Good question. What it looks like is that someone took a handful of Earth, and a handful of some other planets, and smashed them all together. But as far as I can tell we're not in our universe anymore."  
  
"Where are we then? Parallel universe?"  
  
"Nah. Would have fried the whole system. More likely adjacent. Um, give me a second to find a metaphorically resonant image. It'll be wrong, but it'll help." He taps his fingers on the console while he thinks. "All right. Imagine all of our universe is a castle, and around it is a wall, and around _that_ is a moat, and on the other side of the moat are all the other universes. But there's a bit of land between the moat and the wall, and that's where we are."  
  
"But it's not really like that at all."  
  
"Nope. I could try to find a different metaphor, if you wanted."  
  
"I'm good. How do we back over the wall?"  
  
"Same way we got out. Through a mousehole. We just have to find it again."  
  
"This isn't going to be quick, is it." It isn't actually a question. "Doctor, you said a week. _Tops_."  
  
"I didn't plan for holes in the wall of the universe! Anyway, you're the one who insisted I sync your phone for realtime. You could have just stayed non-linear and this wouldn't be a problem."  
  
"And ended up six years in the future? I know what happens when you accidentally arrive too late, you're stuck. No way, not a risk I'm willing to take." She sighs. "Will I be able to call my team from here?"  
  
"Unlikely, but give it a try anyway. It can't hurt. I'm going to go take another look around outside."  
  
"As if I'm letting you out of my sight," she says. "Give me five minutes to find some sensible shoes and I'll go with you."  
  
She attempts her phone call while she searches - as expected, it doesn't work - and true to her word is back in the console room within five minutes. He grabs her hand and heads toward the door.  
  
"I'm married."  
  
"So am I, probably. Depending on who you ask and when."  
  
Gwen doesn't ask the first question that pops into her mind. "So this is normal for you?" she asks instead.  
  
"What?" He follows her eyes to their joined hands. "Oh. I suppose it is. Does it bother you?"  
  
She thinks about it. "Not particularly."  
  
"Good, then. Come along, Ms Cooper, we've got a demi-universe to explore."  
  
  
  
The Doctor keeps his sonic screwdriver out, frowning curiously at it from time to time, and leaves most of the actual observation to Gwen. Mostly what she observes is trees, trees, and more trees.  
  
"Doctor, wait," she says finally. "Over there."  
  
He looks up. "What are we looking at?"  
  
She points. "I think I saw something move."  
  
He goes toward it, because _of course_ he does. They exit the trees, finally, into a large clearing where what appears to be a young brontosaurus is grazing.  
  
"Tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing."  
  
"You'd probably frown at me for lying if I did."  
  
"Great. It's a _prehistoric_ other universe. This day just gets better and better."  
  
"Sorry," he says, not sounding remotely sorry. He pockets the sonic and moves slowly toward the dinosaur. Gwen crosses her arms and refuses to protest.  
  
"It's okay," says a voice nearby. "He's friendly."  
  
Gwen looks around until she finds the speaker - a fourteen-year-old girl wearing red pants, a plaid shirt, and pig-tails. She's standing with a boy just a few years older.  
  
"Hello," Gwen says, startled. "Doctor, you didn't say there were _people_ here."  
  
"Didn't I? Must've slipped my mind." He lays a hand on the brontosaurus' side. "There are three, how many have you got?"  
  
"Two."  
  
"Uncle Jack is back at the temple," the girl says. "That's where we live until we can find a way out of here. I'm Holly and this is my brother Will. Who're you?"  
  
"I'm Gwen, and my friend over there is the Doctor."  
  
"Doctor...?"  
  
"No, that's it. You won't get a real name out of him."  
  
Will nods. "How'd you get here?"  
  
"In a time machine that looks like a police box. He missed our landing."  
  
That doesn't seem to faze the kids.  
  
"Do you know how to get out?"  
  
"Maybe," the Doctor says.  
  
" _Maybe?_ "  
  
He spares her a glance. "Oh, for us, definitely. It's them I'm not so sure about. I haven't figured out all the rules that make this demi-universe work." The brontosaurus lowers it's head and butts his chest gently.  
  
"Dopey!" Holly says.  
  
"Quite right," the Doctor says, ignoring her. He lowers his forehead to rest on Dopey's and closes his eyes.  
  
"What's he doing?" Holly asks.  
  
"Talking, I think."  
  
"Doesn't look like talking," Will says.  
  
"That's because you have the telepathic skill level of a brick," the Doctor says. " _Shh_."  
  
"Telepathy?" Holly whispers. "Cool!"  
  
"No, it's not," Will says crossly. "The Zarn's a telepath and look what _he's_ done with it."  
  
"Excuse me?" the Doctor says, sounding offended. "Do I look like a Zarn to you?"  
  
"You know the Zarn?"  
  
"I know a few Zarns, none of them pleasant people. I'll thank you to _not_ compare me to them." He sniffs. "Zarn telepathy is all brute force, like taking a wrecking ball to a building instead of knocking on the door. Awful stuff. _Amateur_."  
  
"Didn't feel amateur when he was using it on us."  
  
"Well, it wouldn't, would it? You're human, you're not programmed to notice."  
  
"You're not human?" Holly asks doubtfully.  
  
"Nope. Now quit distracting me." He puts his head back to Dopey's.  
  
"He doesn't _look_ like an alien," Holly says.  
  
"You'd be surprised how common that is."  
  
Holly looks at her with big eyes. "Have you met a lot of aliens, then?"  
  
"More than I can count. It's my job to meet them, you see. What about you?"  
  
"Um." Her face scrunches up in concentration. "Five? The Zarn, and Enik, and the Builder, and the Sleestaks, and the Pakuni. I think that's all of them. I never thought of it like that before."  
  
"How long have you been here?"  
  
"Almost four years," Will says.  
  
"I can't imagine."  
  
"I can," the Doctor says, straightening. He pats Dopey absentmindedly. "Remind me to tell you about the time the Time Lords grounded me." He claps his hands. "I think it's time we talk to this uncle of yours."  
  
"Doctor," Gwen says reproachfully.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm sorry about him," she says, glaring. "He doesn't understand sympathy."  
  
"It's only four years. They're young, they'll get over it."  
  
" _Doctor!_ "  
  
He shrugs unapologetically. "You live in a temple, you said?"  
  
  
  
"A completely closed system," the Doctor says. "That certainly explains the strange readings I've been getting. How did you figure that out?"  
  
"Empirical evidence," Uncle Jack says. "Walk far enough in one direction and you'll end up right back where you started."  
  
"Throw something in a pit and it'll fall out of the sky," Will volunteers.  
  
"And when one person leaves another person has to enter," Holly says. "Or maybe it's the other way around. That's how come Uncle Jack is here instead of dad. We've seen it happen before, too."  
  
Uncle Jack nods. "Enik concurs, and his people built most of the technology in this place, except what was left by the Builder."  
  
"So when you get out...?" Gwen asks.  
  
"Three more people get stuck here," the Doctor says. "Which sucks for whoever that is, but it's probably not forever."  
  
Holly frowns at him. "Has anyone ever told you you're not very nice?"  
  
"Probably." The sonic screwdriver beeps and suddenly it's like none of them are even there. He gives it a shake, then stands up and walks off. "Excuse me."  
  
"He's usually not this bad," Gwen says apologetically.  
  
"Enik is usually worse," Will says. "Do you think your friend can help get us out of here?"  
  
"If anyone can, he can."  
  
"What's this?" the Doctor asks, picking up a yellow crystal.  
  
"Be careful with that!" Uncle Jack says. "Touching the crystals together can have... unpleasant results."  
  
"I wasn't planning on playing with them. What are they for?"  
  
Will shrugs. "Sometimes they go in matrix tables, inside pylons. They control the weather and the sun and moons, and sometimes they open portals."  
  
"The red and green ones make light," Holly says. "And blue and green make a forcefield."  
  
"Most other combinations cause explosions or electric shocks," Uncle Jack says.  
  
"Huh," he says. He holds the sonic against the crystal for a moment and it goes cloudy and then turns red.  
  
"You made it change colours!" Holly says. "How'd you do that?"  
  
"Easily. I just changed the sonic resonances of the crystal matrices and- you know what? It's not that interesting. You want to try?"  
  
"Sure! Can I make it blue? Blue are harder to find."  
  
He fiddles with the sonic, then hands it over. "Go ahead. Just push this button here, none of the others. That should work on the red or yellow, but don't try it on the green ones."  
  
"What happens if I use it on the green ones?"  
  
"I don't know, but it's probably not good." He looks at Uncle Jack. "I want to see one of these matrix tables."  
  
"Why?" Gwen asks.  
  
"Because it sounds interesting, and I'm all about interesting things."  
  
"Do you even remember that I have an infant at home?"  
  
"Of course I do. Don't worry, I'll get you back before his birthday."  
  
"Doctor..."  
  
"Really, Ms Cooper, don't worry. I have a plan to get us all out of this mess."  
  
"All?" Will asks.  
  
"A plan?" Gwen asks. "Can I remind you that your last plan involved-"  
  
"No you can not!" he says loudly. "This is a much better plan!"  
  
"Maybe you should share it with the group before you put it into action."  
  
"Well, if you _insist_ ," he whines.  
  
"I do."  
  
"Fine. There are exactly three Time Lords left in existence in our universe. Me, and the Master, and the Rani. She was one of the little girls I had your team let go before we left, remember?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Time Lord?" Will asks. "That's really what your species is called?"  
  
"What's wrong with that?"  
  
"Nothing. Nothing, it's just a bit..."  
  
"Pretentious?" Gwen suggests.  
  
"Do you want to hear this plan or not?"  
  
"Go on."  
  
"Where was I? Right, three Time Lords. This isn't obvious to you?"  
  
"I'm beginning to get the idea," Gwen says.  
  
"I'm not."  
  
"Three for three," the Doctor says. "I'll bring them here to take your place, trap the three of us here. It's even better than keeping them in fobwatches. You get to go home, they don't get to destroy anything. It's perfect." He looks at Gwen eagerly. "Right?"  
  
"It's certainly better thought out than the last plan you had," she says tentatively.  
  
"Excellent. Now to find our mousehole, wake the Master up, and capture the Rani."  
  
"And bring me _home_ ," Gwen reminds him.  
  
"Oh. Right. You're not going to help?"  
  
"Infant. Son."  
  
"It's just another couple days," he protests. "Please? Pretty please with sugar on top? You know what'll happen if I wake the Master up on my own."  
  
"I'll think about it," she says before he can go into any more detail. She remembers very clearly what happened the _last_ time the Doctor had dealt with the Master without her supervision.  
  
"That's what you said last time," he sing-songs.  
  
"We can't ask you to-" Uncle Jack starts.  
  
"Nonsense! This is exactly what we need. If we stay long enough we might even get the species away from the extinction point."  
  
Gwen drops her head into her hands.  
  
  
  
Gwen knocks on the door of the sturdy wood cabin. It opens slowly and a man with curly brown hair peers out.  
  
"Rick Marshall?" she asks. "My name is Gwen Cooper. I've just been in and out of another dimension and I've got a message for you from your children."  
  
"Will and Holly?" he asks roughly. "You've seen them? They're alive?"  
  
"Yes. Yes, they're fine. Better than just alive." She smiles. "They're going to get out, we're going to get them out."  
  
"How?"  
  
She shook her head. "I can't really explain it. But it'll be soon, I promise." She passes him the letter Jack had given her before they'd left. "Your brother asked me to give you this."  
  
He stares at it. "Thank you."  
  
"You're welcome." She turns around and heads back to the Tardis.


	3. A Necessary Detour

The Doctor and Gwen stare at the statue of an angel standing beside the car where Sam Tyler had been just seconds before.  
  
"Doctor," Gwen says slowly. "This is not what I signed on for. What the hell just happened?"  
  
He pushes her back into the Tardis and throws the ship into the vortex as quick as he can.  
  
"That," he says. "Was very, very bad. Have you ever heard of a Weeping Angel?"  
  
She shakes her head. "No. Is that what that was? Did you just leave a dangerous alien _roaming the streets of London?_ "  
  
"Don't worry, I dealt with that one in 2008."  
  
"What is it? Where did he go?"  
  
"Wrong question. What you want to be asking is _when_ did he go. A Weeping Angel sends you into the past and feeds off the life you would have lived. Nasty things, but at least they don't kill you outright. And the answer to that question is, I don't know. Last time I faced the Weeping Angels I tracked them by letting one of them send me back and then recruiting assistance from the future, but I feel like that's a plan you wouldn't have approved of."  
  
"That's because it's an awful plan."  
  
"See, I knew you'd say that."  
  
"So how do we find him?"  
  
"Well, I could build a device that would track his exact timestream from the second the Angel laid hands on him back to whenever he arrived in the past, but that's likely to take at least a week."  
  
"A _week?!_ "  
  
He winces. "I know. That's why, much as I loathe the idea, I'm going to ask you to consult your team. If he went back in time there's bound to be a record of him somewhere."  
  
"And you want me to ask Lois to find it."  
  
"Exactly. It's in your own best interest if you want to get this over with quickly."  
  
She stares at him. "Your people skills need some work. Couldn't you just say please? You've said it before."  
  
He sniffs. "I don't need people skills, I've got you."  
  
"Not forever, you won't." He pouts at her; she stares back. Eventually she sighs and takes out her phone. "Not a word."  
  
He mimes zipping his lips and she rolls her eyes at him.  
  
"Hello, Lois."  
  
" _Gwen_ ," Lois says, sounding surprised. " _You're not scheduled to call in until six._ "  
  
"I know. I need you to look something up for me."  
  
" _Okay, go_."  
  
"The Doctor has reason to believe that Sam Tyler was accidentally sent back in time, but we don't know when to. See if you can find any mention of someone matching his name or description turning up where he doesn't belong. Start as close to the present as you can and work backwards."  
  
" _On it. How are you?_ "  
  
"Exhausted," she says. "He's hard to keep up with, doesn't slow down for anything. I can hardly convince him to sit down for breakfast, and this is when he's trying to _keep_ me."  
  
" _Good practice for the teenage years._ "  
  
"God, don't remind me."  
  
" _Hi, Gwen!_ " Johnson yells from somewhere in the flat.  
  
"Hello, Johnson. Shoot anything interesting lately?"  
  
" _No. Kathy won't let me shoot things._ "  
  
" _I've got something,_ " Lois says, saving Gwen from having to answer that honestly. " _A Detective Inspector Sam Tyler worked for Manchester CID starting in January 1973. All the records say he transferred from Hyde Division, but there's no record of him ever having been there at all. He was there until 1981, there was a car chase and a storm, but no body was ever recovered. That what you're looking for?_ "  
  
"It sounds promising. Thanks, Lois."  
  
  
  
"I may have overshot a bit."  
  
"No, really?" She rolls her eyes. "When are we?"  
  
"1974. It's not a big deal, we're going to have to bring him back anyway if the information your team gave us is any good."  
  
"Is it even Manchester?"  
  
"Yes." He pushes the door open. "I can usually manage at least one or the other."  
  
"That sounds about right." She follows him out of the Tardis and nearly walks into his back when he stops abruptly. "What's wrong?"  
  
"She's _here_."  
  
"You're going to have to be more specific."  
  
"The Rani." He forces his body to relax. "I can hear her. She's here, and I didn't plan for that."  
  
"That's probably for the best," she says. "Considering how your plans have been going. No, wait. You can _hear_ her?"  
  
He nods distractedly. "In my head. She's not bothering to shield her thoughts. And why would she? No one on this planet has the active telepathic receptors to properly notice her. Humans won't evolve those for another couple centuries and the few freaks of nature who'll crop up early wouldn't even know what they were hearing. That's about 5% of all schizophrenics in the world, coincidentally. I've locked my brain now, but it's possible she's already noticed me." He shakes his head. "I can't believe I didn't plan for this."  
  
"I can."  
  
"Hush, you. What's she _doing_ here? This isn't right, she shouldn't _be here_. We have to deal with this." He grabs her hand and sets off at a brisk pace. "Right now. Come on."  
  
She has to jog to keep up with his longer strides. "Doctor-"  
  
"She has a habit of experimenting on humans, and I won't let it go on. But I'm afraid we're going a bit out of order, we might have to make a few trips to get this trap set."  
  
"Of course we will. I don't know why I expected you to get me home on time."  
  
"Oh, you never did," he says. "Of course you didn't, you're smarter than that."  
  
"Do you have any idea what you're going to do when we find her?"  
  
"You're going to shoot her."  
  
" _Doctor!_ "  
  
"In the leg! I don't want you to kill her or anything, just keep her from being able to escape."  
  
"You don't even _like_ guns, remember?"  
  
"I'm feeling ambivalent today."  
  
"I am not going to shoot an eleven year old girl for you."  
  
"She's not an eleven year old," he scoffs. "She's at least as old as I am."  
  
"Please tell me we're not really having this discussion."  
  
He sighs. "No. Of course we're not. Don't be ridiculous. I'd never _seriously_ ask you to shoot someone for me."  
  
"Good," she says, feeling strangely disconcerted all the same. "So what really happens when we find her?"  
  
  
  
The Doctor knows exactly why _he_ 's disconcerted, and it has nothing to do with the Rani being where he hadn't expected her to be. No, it has rather more to do with what her unfiltered broadcasting is doing to his already tattered mental barriers.  
  
He isn't _used_ to this. It's been years since he's had any sort of telepathic contact with his own kind (except for the Master, but the Master is so well contained and then deliberately cruel with it that he hesitates to call that _contact_ ), since the moment the war ended, and he can't keep her thoughts out the way he can keep his own in. It's grating, like nails on a chalkboard, and he can't tell her to tone it down without giving away the element of surprise.  
  
Slowly, he gets acclimated to her presence (well, no, okay, he indulges his recent habit of cracking open the Master's fobwatch and letting his rage tear at him, which is familiar enough that after a minute he can click it closed again and relegate the Rani to a secondary concern) and focuses on answering the question.  
  
"I think I have to put her in the mirrors."  
  
"You do realise I need more of an explanation than that."  
  
" _Why?_ " he complains. "Can't you just take that on faith?"  
  
"Would you?"  
  
"No-o-o," he says slowly. "Fair point. Fine. Have you heard of the Family of Blood?"  
  
"Sounds like something out of a horror film."  
  
"Oh, they're not that bad. Just a nuisance, really. You're sure you haven't heard to them? I thought you said you'd read Joan's granddaughters book."  
  
She frowns at him. "You mean the Mayflies?"  
  
"If that's what she called them, yes."  
  
"The book doesn't say what happened to them."  
  
"I punished them. Locked them away where they couldn't do anymore damage. The youngest one I trapped in a quantum reality sort-of located inside all the mirrors that will ever exist. You met her, she was the little girl who was with the Rani in the ruins."  
  
"And what stops her from feeding on your friend the second you put her in there?"  
  
"The laws of time travel." He can tell that isn't going to be enough for her. "The Rani's smart - not as smart as me, but smart - she'll think of something." Gwen still doesn't look convinced. "She's a Time Lady, Ms Cooper. Believe me, there aren't enough of us left for me to willingly endanger her life."  
  
"Okay, so we put her in the mirror. Then what?"  
  
"Then we do what we came here to do. We find Sam Tyler and bring him back to 2006."  
  
"And then?"  
  
"Then we spring the trap. And then you get to go home."  
  
  
  
They find the Rani in what turns out, upon inspection, to be Sam Tyler's flat. She's sitting on the floor inside a tiny half-closet, with what appears to be a stuffed clown in her lap. Appears to be, anyway, until it looks up in surprise at the same time she does.  
  
The Doctor barely has time to process the look on her face before he slams the door shut and blocks it with a broom. Gwen doesn't even get the chance to see.  
  
"What is it?" she asks.  
  
"Demipath."  
  
"Really," she says flatly.  
  
"You have no idea what that is."  
  
"Not one."  
  
He sighs and leans back against the closet door, which shudders every few seconds as the Rani pounds on it. "Okay, short version, a demipath is a kind of telepathic parasite. They feed off strong emotions, usually one specific, unpleasant one. Real telepaths occasionally bind them, use them to emphasise their own abilities."  
  
"Like a signal booster."  
  
"Exactly. Which explains why I could hear the Rani so clearly when we arrived."  
  
"Is it sentient?"  
  
"Eh," he says. "Maybe? Of a sort. No one really knows."  
  
"How can you not know?"  
  
"You don't study demipaths," he says, clearly quoting some textbook somewhere. "You avoid them at all costs. If you cannot avoid a demipath, destroy it."  
  
"Enlightened."  
  
"Apparently they have the same effect on telepaths that certain drugs have on human biology."  
  
"If your people avoid them so much, why does the Rani have one?"  
  
"She was never particularly good at following the rules."  
  
"Sounds like someone else I know."  
  
He shrugs and pounds his fist on the closet door in warning. "If we were good at following the rules we wouldn't have survived the war."  
  
"Okay, so we take it away from her and put her in the mirror-"  
  
"No. Let her keep it."  
  
" _Keep_ it. It's making her more powerful, and you want to let her keep it."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Of course you do. _Why?_ "  
  
"Because she was carrying it in the ruins. And I have an idea."  
  
"Oh, god." She contemplates all the terrible things that could mean. "Share."  
  
"Not while she's in earshot. When I open this, I'm going to need you to apprehend her." He pats his suitcoat and then tosses her a pair of handcuffs.  
  
"If I ask why you have these, am I going to regret it?"  
  
"Probably." He moves away from the door. "On three."  
  
  
  
The Rani swears more than most eleven year olds, in Gwen's experience. The Doctor doesn't notice the swearing because he's busy fending off the concentrated telepathic assault the Rani had launched the moment she'd had a line of sight on him. It takes up so much of his attention, in fact, that Gwen has to repeat herself three times before he realises she's talking to him.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I said, what do we do with her now?" She narrows her eyes at him, concerned. "What's with you?"  
  
He's about to answer when the Rani breaches one of his barriers and his legs nearly go out from under him in surprise. He grabs a fistful of her hair and yanks her head back. "Stop it."  
  
"No."  
  
Which is about what he'd expected.  
  
"Doctor!" Gwen says, sounding scandalised. She coaxes his fingers open. "Pulling hair isn't nice."  
  
"She's the _bad guy_."  
  
"I don't care." He twitches under the next onslaught. "Are you all right?"  
  
"Of course not," he snaps. "She's chipping away at my blockade, how could I possibly be all right? I need an anchor, but the Tardis is way too telepathic for _that_ to be a safe option and I don't have any conductive gems at hand."  
  
"Would I do?"  
  
He blinks at her. "Maybe." He gasps in pain, vision swimming as the Rani finds another crack to prise open, and comes back to himself a minute later with Gwen snapping her fingers in front of his eyes. "I can't ask you to-"  
  
"If you think I'm going to just stand here and watch you suffer when I could be doing something about it you've got another thing coming, mister. Tell me what you need me to do."  
  
"Give me your hand." He grabs on with both of his, thumbs pressing into her wrist. "Common misconception says telepathy's in your brain, but it's not, it's in your blood. That's why so many 'magic' rituals require blood sacrifice. Telly shows you telepaths going for the head, but any pulse point will do. This might sting a bit."  
  
The next second the inside of her head expands to accommodate them both. The holes in his mental barricade fill in, an entire second wall bolstering the first. His broken defenses quickly begin to repair themselves.  
  
"Oh, that's not fair," the Rani complains.  
  
"You're using a _demipath_ ," he says pointedly, Gwen's voice echoing his.  
  
The Rani shrugs.  
  
"This is really weird," Gwen says, and the words pass through his larynx half a second behind her. "Is this really how you see the world?"  
  
"Sort of. Your brain doesn't really have receptors for some of the information I perceive-"  
  
"-which is why I've got synesthesia and deja vu," she finishes the thought.  
  
"Yes. We shouldn't keep this up for very long." He lets go with one hand and pulls out the sonic screwdriver. "I never took the mirror apparatus apart. Have you got her?"  
  
"You know I do."  
  
Working together with what amounts to a hive mind, they get the Rani sealed away in the mirrors in under ten minutes. Oh, she spits and swears and _bites_ , but in the end she has the physical strength of an eleven year old and they more than outmatch her.  
  
The Doctor drops her hand and his consciousness ebbs away from hers. "Thank you."  
  
She nods, surprised by the unexpected courtesy and suddenly more tired than she's been in weeks. It's an effort to keep her eyes open.  
  
He scrubs a hand over his face. "Ms Cooper-"  
  
"Gwen. After that, you can call me Gwen."  
  
"Gwen, then. We should go find Sam Tyler."  
  
"Tomorrow," she decides. "That was exhausting. I'm going to go sleep for about twelve hours."  
  
He stiffles a yawn. "Good idea. I'll call your team and let them know you're still alive, maybe catch some z's myself after."  
  
"Great," she mumbles, fumbling a clumsy thumbs up, and stumbles off toward her room.  
  
  
  
Necessary as it might have been, waiting to go after Sam Tyler turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea. Following information Gwen acquires at the police station, they find him on the ground, unconscious, only a few miles from what sounds like an awful police standoff. The Doctor picks him up bridal style and carries him back to the Tardis without bothering to investigate.  
  
"We'll just bring him right back to this moment," he explains. "Far as he's concerned, no time will pass at all."  
  
"If you can stick the landing."  
  
He waggles a finger at her. "That's enough negativity out of you. Didn't your young woman say something about a brain tumour?"  
  
"My young woman," she repeats, eyebrows up.  
  
"Um..." He searches his memory for a name. "Lois?"  
  
"Very good. She said he has a brain tumour removed while he's in hospital, then jumps off a building and disappears."  
  
"Well that second part's easy, we're going to catch him. The first bit, though. A brain tumour just happens to appear while he's in a coma over a _car accident?_ Doesn't that sound a little far fetched to you?"  
  
"Honestly, I have no idea. I work for Torchwood, my perspective on weird is shot."  
  
"And the Rani had him on a stretcher," he continues. "Like they'd taken him out of hospital. So let's aim for that, put him back there instead of putting him there in the first place."  
  
"You can aim wherever you like."  
  
"Oi." It's a half-hearted protest at best and he's immediately distracted by the reading he's getting from the sonic. He frowns, shakes it, and points it at Sam's head again. "That's not a tumour."  
  
"Then what is it?"  
  
"Telepathic scar tissue. Oh, it'll look like a tumour to a human doctor, and it can be removed the same way, but that's the result of _significant_ psychic manipulation. What the hell was she _doing_ to him?"  
  
"Too late to ask now."  
  
He drops the sonic back into his pocket. "Right, then. London circa 2007."  
  
  
  
After returning Sam to a hospital bed that, either thankfully or worryingly, no one had noticed was empty, they return to the Tardis. The Doctor lifts one of the floor grates up and digs through the space underneath until he finds what he's looking for.  
  
"What's that?" Gwen asks.  
  
"Null gravity net." He affixes it across the doorway. "It'll cancel out his momentum. No going splat from jumping off a building. Of course, it'll probably also knock out his higher brain functions, it wasn't designed with humans in mind, but that'll be fine. Just as well, really, since he was unconscious when we found him. No cognitive dissonance." He steps back. "There we go. Now, we're going to land sideways on the side of a building so the gravity wells will be perpendicular. I'm going to need you to stay away from the doors and then make sure he's okay once he clears them. Here we go."  
  
This turns out to be the easiest part of the whole ordeal. The Doctor is shockingly on target both times and it seems like no time at all until Sam Tyler is back where he belongs.  
  
"Well that was tedious," the Doctor says.  
  
"But it's sorted now, right? We can go spring your trap."  
  
"Well, we _could_ do that..."  
  
"But...?" she prompts, already dreading the answer.  
  
"But I got an invitation on the psychic paper." He passes it to her. "It's formal dress. I haven't gotten to do formal dress in this body yet."  
  
"And this can't wait until you drop me off home?"  
  
"It says bring a friend. Please? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease _please?_ " She sighs and the Doctor beams at her. "It'll be fun, you'll see."  
  
"I better see my living room sometime very soon."  
  
"Sure, sure," he says dismissively. "Just this one detour and then we'll get on our way."  
  
Gwen sighs again. "I didn't bring any formal wear. It's not something you pack in a 'just in case we have to go on the run' bag."  
  
"I would."  
  
"You don't count, you bring your whole ship with you when you run away."  
  
"Fair enough. Don't worry, there's bound to be something in the wardrobe that'll fit. We can go together, I have to find a suit."


	4. No Edge (Honey Badger Ate It)

_Hello, Sweetie. You should come visit me as soon as you get the chance. Dress up, and bring a friend if you want. xoxo_  
  
  
  
"So who is she?" Gwen asks. "This woman you've dropped everything for, including _getting me home?_ "  
  
"My wife. Well, not yet. Well, _probably_ not yet. _Well_ -"  
  
"You know what?" she interrupts. "Forget I asked."  
  
"We're a non-linear love story," he says breezily. "We keep meeting out of order."  
  
"And how many times have you met so far?"  
  
"Twice. Or is it thrice? It's definitely one of those two." A sock flies over the dividing wall, followed by three ties in quick succession. "Why don't I have anything that _matches?_ "  
  
"You're not dragging me on a shopping trip." She can positively hear him pouting. "No, Doctor. It's bad enough you're taking me to this whatever-it-is, you're not tacking any more time on. We're doing this, and then you're springing your trap and taking me home, or I'm putting you back on Torchwood's Most Wanted list."  
  
"You wouldn't do that."  
  
"Try me." She slips on a pair of heels, takes two steps, and opts for a more sensible flat shoe. "Do you have any idea where we're going to be meeting her?"  
  
"Dalrissian Museum of Unnatural History, by the coordinates." He pulls a face. "I hate museums, she has to know I hate museums."  
  
"What have you got against museums?"  
  
"They always get it _wrong_." He huffs. "If you're going to pretend to be an authority about the past you should at least have the decency to see it for yourself instead of pulling wild guesses out of bits of broken pottery."  
  
"Not everyone has a time machine at their disposal."  
  
"As well they shouldn't. Who knows what trouble they'd get up to?"  
  
"Maybe she doesn't know how you feel about museums yet," she offers.  
  
"Like hell she doesn't. This is just like her. It's her to a T. Classic River Song."  
  
"Right... I'm going to go wait in the console room. Don't be long."  
  
Eventually the Doctor emerges wearing an electric blue suit that doesn't even remotely match Gwen's red dress, but at least doesn't clash terribly. He poses.  
  
"How do I look?"  
  
"Your tie is crooked."  
  
"What?" He looks down and starts fiddling with it. "No, it's not."  
  
"Yes, it is. Come here." She bats his hands away and fixes the mess he's made of it. "There. Now you're presentable."  
  
"Gwen Cooper," he pronounces. "You are _terrible_ for my ego."  
  
"I think you'll survive." She takes his arm. "Come on, we wouldn't want to be late."  
  
  
  
The museum looks empty on first glance, barely lit because it's the middle of the night.  
  
"River?" the Doctor calls, letting go of Gwen to go peer around corners.  
  
"Over here, Sweetie," Her voice floats out from behind one of the nearby exhibits. Heels click on the linoleum and then she's leaning "Ooh, you're young again."  
  
"I am not," he says, affronted. "Do you have any idea how old I am?"  
  
"About a thousand, give or take a decade," she says casually. "And don't give me 'nine hundred' because I know better."  
  
He gapes at her.  
  
"You're younger than you were last time." She looks him over. "It's a good look for you. That colour suits you."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"The girl is cute too," River says. "Is she one of yours?"  
  
"Not the way you're thinking."  
  
"Shame." She drapes her arms around his neck. "You're also late."  
  
"What a surprise," Gwen says loudly from the other side of the room, where she's peering at one of the displays and pretending to ignore them.  
  
"Hush, you," the Doctor calls over his shoulder. "I am not. You said four o'clock-"  
  
"PM. _PM_ , Doctor. It's the middle of the night."  
  
"I, um, oh. You didn't specify."  
  
"I shouldn't have to. Who asks to meet someone in a museum in the middle of the night?"  
  
He blushes. "I thought you might."  
  
She grins broadly. "You're right, I would. But it's not that type of visit."  
  
"Then what type of visit is it? Ooh, that rhymed."  
  
"Well, it _would_ have been the type of visit where I invite you to important events in my life because they're important to me and so are you."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"Nevermind. You'll just have to make it up to me."  
  
"How?"  
  
She leans forward for a lingering kiss and murmurs, "Take me somewhere."  
  
"Where?"  
  
"On Arquillas you promised to take me to watch the universe expand."  
  
"Ooh, we're going to go to Arquillas? I love Arquillas, it's one of my favourite non-human planets." His hands settle on her hips. "You shouldn't have told me that, though. Haven't I talked to you about the rules of time travel yet?"  
  
"Oops." She doesn't sound particularly worried about it. "What do you say? Take me to the edge of the universe?"  
  
"Technically impossible." He pushes her back into her own space. "What's this important event that I missed?"  
  
She pouts for a second and then grabs his hand. "I'll show you. It's in here." She tugs him into another room, Gwen trailing behind them curiously. A single display case takes up most of the room. It's lit from the inside, almost glowing, and inside on a pedestal is a large and tarnished piece of metal. "Ta-da."  
  
"What is it?" Gwen asks.  
  
"The last remaining trace of the Girimujen civilization," she says smugly. "Also known as the first thing I uncovered all by myself." She offers Gwen her hand. "River Song, brand-spanking-new archaeologist."  
  
The Doctor snorts at that.  
  
Gwen shakes River's hand and ignores him. "Gwen Cooper, Torchwood. Congratulations."  
  
The Doctor approaches the display case and puts his hands and face directly on the glass, just like a five year old. "I was there when they created that. It was shinier then."  
  
"Of course it was, Sweetie," River says patiently. "This is how time works for the rest of the universe. Entropy and all that."  
  
"Boring," he declares. Gwen clears her throat meaningfully. "I mean, good on you for digging it up and everything, that's probably pretty important - although not really, in the grand scheme of things, of course - and it was probably a lot of work, and it clearly means a lot to you, so congratulations."  
  
"That was awful," she says. "You're terrible at congratulations."  
  
"I know."  
  
"You should be flattered he tried at all," Gwen says. "Being considerate isn't in his skill set."  
  
"He'll grow out of that."  
  
" _River!_ "  
  
"What? Oh, that was one of those things about the future I shouldn't have told you, wasn't it? Sorry."  
  
"There are no things about the future you should tell me. Just a hint." He peels himself off the glass and uses his sleeve to ineffectually wipe off the smudges. "So. The edge of the universe, you said?"  
  
"Doctor," Gwen says. "Aren't you forgetting something?"  
  
"No, I don't think so. Why?"  
  
She crosses her arms. "You were supposed to take me home. Three weeks ago."  
  
River raises her eyebrows. "You do kidnappings now, do you? A girl could get jealous."  
  
"It's hard to kidnap you if you come willingly every time," the Doctor points out.  
  
"True." She smirks. "Also, I'm the least jealous lover you'll ever have. Bragging, not time travel. Promise."  
  
He leans over to give her a kiss and bounds out of the room in the direction of the Tardis. "Come on, then, edge of the universe here we come. Gwen, just one more trip, there and back, and then I'll get you home."  
  
"Not the first time I've heard that." She looks at River. "I hope you don't have any plans for the next month or so."  
  
  
  
The Doctor flings the doors open on colour. Not a colour Gwen can identify, but the sort of not-reddish-black she sees on her eyelids when her eyes are closed.  
  
"All set?"  
  
She doublechecks the rope looped around her waist several times. "Are you sure this will hold?"  
  
"Positive. I've done this dozens of times. River?"  
  
"I'm good to go."  
  
"After you, then."  
  
River bounces forward, accustomed enough to zero-gee motion to clear the entrance and turn around before drifting too far.  
  
"And the air...?" Gwen asks.  
  
"The atmospheric shell is perfect," he says. "Goes all the way out, yoinks past the end of your tether."  
  
"And-"  
  
" _Gwen_. It'll be fine, don't worry."  
  
"Why is it that when you say 'don't worry', I get even more worried than I was to begin with?"  
  
"Because you like to be contrary," the Doctor says at the same time River shouts, "Experience!"  
  
One of these answers is more accurate than the other.  
  
Gwen launches herself out of the Tardis less gracefully than River and flails about for her balance. River catches her by the arm and helps her right herself. "Ta."  
  
"Tricky, isn't it?"  
  
She nods.  
  
"You'll get used to it."  
  
"How did you?"  
  
River shrugs, a motion that causes her to drift minutely upward. "Once you've fucked in zero-gee, moving normally isn't difficult."  
  
"You and-?" Her eyes cut to the Doctor, who's still standing in the doorway fiddling with his sonic screwdriver.  
  
"No. Someone else." She floats in silence for a minute. "Her name was Lara. My dormmate at University. She went into the Time Agency straight after. I thought about joining her, but..."  
  
"Why didn't you?"  
  
"They teach different rules than he does. I decided it wasn't worth the confusion." She twists around to look down at the Doctor. "Are you planning to join us anytime soon?"  
  
"That depends on if you're done gossiping." He pockets the sonic and floats out of the Tardis. "What do you think? Worth the trip?"  
  
"We'll see."  
  
Gwen drifts toward the not-colour and puts her hand out to steady herself. That non-edge _gives_ like the surface of a trampoline, but doesn't push her back. No opposite reaction. Instead of shoving off the wall, her hand just sinks into it.  
  
"Congratulations, Gwen Cooper," the Doctor says, significantly closer than he was before. She doesn't quite jump, due to the lack of gravity more than anything else. "How does it feel to change the shape of the universe?"  
  
She snatches her hand back as if it's been burned. " _What?_ "  
  
Her grins at her. "Yep. There's a Gwen-shaped bump in the side of the universe now, always will be... no, don't look like that. It's not like you're setting any stars off their orbits or anything. You don't think...?"  
  
"What else am I supposed to think? It's like the butterfly effect only worse!"  
  
"No. Nonononono. First, the butterfly effect isn't even a _thing_ , time doesn't work that way. And second, neither does the universe. Time-space stretches when it expands, but nothing really _moves_ in relation to anything else. It's just a cosmetic change, like how painting your house doesn't change where any of the rooms are. It's like that. There's your handprint, right there, expanding forever. Don't you think that's cool?"  
  
"It's a little cool," she admits grudgingly, now that she's been assured she hasn't started a univeral apocalypse.  
  
"That's the spirit. River, how're you doing?" He drifts off in her direction.  
  
Gwen carefully turns herself, only getting stuck in the rope twice, so her back is to the wall of non-colour and looks out at the universe. It fills her whole vision, stars and galaxies shining perfectly, nothing obscured - that atmospheric shell is astoundingly invisible - and it doesn't go away when she turns her head. It's all there is to see. It's almost the most beautiful thing she's ever seen, would be if she hadn't seen her husband putting their newborn son in her arms.  
  
"Gwen, maybe you should go wait inside," the Doctor says.  
  
"Why?" she asks, only half-shaken from her reverie.  
  
"Because," River says. "He's going to fuck me into the fabric of the universe."  
  
  
  
"Don't tell me," she says, a span of time which is not insignificant later. "You're not taking me home yet."


	5. Epanorthosis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> epanorthosis - taking back or correcting one's words even while saying them; thinking better of saying something

They've barely been there for ten minutes when the Doctor abruptly stops walking and stands stock still in the middle of the market.  
  
"We should leave."  
  
"What? Why?"  
  
River follows his gaze. "Ooh, who's he?"  
  
"Me. He's me." He catches her arm before she can walk over. " _Well_ before we meet for the first time, River. He won't take well to your... you-ness."  
  
"I can see _that_ , Sweetie. He's practically leaking the War into the ether over there, post-traumatic as all hell. I can be discreet."  
  
  
  
"Oh, you haven't even met- no, wait, can't say that."  
  
"Spoilers," Nine agrees sagely.  
  
"Spoilers? Ooh, I like that. Why didn't I think of that?"  
  
Nine smirks in amusement. So does River.  
  
  
  
"And when you do meet her, don't forget to mention that it travels in time. I'm serious. Do not forget."  
  
"He's going to forget, right?" Gwen asks as Nine's Tardis fades.  
  
"Oh, he'll remember eventually. I shouldn't have said anything, but." He shrugs. "Couldn't hurt."  
  
"Do you remember this?" River asks curiously. "Being him, here, with us?"  
  
"Yes. But I didn't before."  
  
Gwen peers at him curiously. "Is that normal?"  
  
"Oh, yes. Well, mostly normal. Normal for me, anyway. Mostly normal for me. Crossing my own timeline and all that."  
  
She rolls her eyes. "Fine. Normal enough. Now what?"  
  
  
  
"Here we are, 51st century. Just like I said."  
  
"Oh, you can take _her_ home? _She_ doesn't have an infant!" She pauses. "You don't, right?"  
  
"Nope." She claps Gwen on the shoulder. "Good luck."  
  
As soon as she's gone the Doctor is at the console again. "Right-o, then, so much to see, so little time. We've got a trap to spring, but the sensors say the Rani and Sister-of-Mine are still inside the mirrors so not _quite_ yet. We could do Felspoon?"  
  
"And then you'll take me home?"  
  
"Gwen," he says fondly. "Gwen Cooper. I will take you home, I promise. It will even be before your son's birthday. But you can't _possibly_ still believe 'one more trip'."  
  
She hangs her head. "I didn't think so."


End file.
